Densho Digital Archive - Dorothy Ikkanda Interview (denshovh-idorothy-01-0011)

<Begin Segment 11>

RP: And then along, along comes the war. And do you recall December 7th?

DI: I was just trying to think. You know, I can't remember too much about December 7th, for some reason. I think I was, I went to my folks' place. [Addressing husband] Was I there when you called me? I was there, wasn't I, and you called me. And I just couldn't believe it. Kind of scary, just unbelievable.

RP: Yeah, life changed pretty drastically after December 7th for everybody, but Japanese Americans were subjected to curfews, the FBI started moving through the community and picking up...

DI: You know, I can't remember too much about that.

RP: ...community leaders. The Isseis who were priests, language school people. Do you recall any of that?

DI: You know, I don't really, can't remember too much about that. I do remember when we left, we left right from this corner on the bus to Manzanar.

RP: Which corner was that?

DI: I think right over here. Didn't we leave from right there? Yeah. Mississippi and Corinth right there. 'Cause the Japanese institute is half a block up the street.

RP: Right there.

DI: Or down the street, yeah. And since we lived right down Sawtelle Boulevard -- oh, we stayed up all night, that's right. But his friends all came over, and we stayed up all night and they were throwing dice there. [Laughs] Oh, and then they said we could take what we could carry, so I think I made these duffel bags, and we put everything on, I couldn't even lift it off the floor. And then we had to eliminate. It was funny. It was a funny time.

RP: What did you take with you?

DI: I can't... well, we naturally took our clothes, I can't remember what we really took. Basically clothes, I would imagine, and personal toiletries. I forgot. But I do remember making this duffel bag, and we loaded, and then I couldn't even get it off the floor. [Laughs] So we had to eliminate. They were funny times, too, things we could laugh about now.

RP: Well, so the whole community, the whole Sawtelle area met at that corner.

DI: Yeah. Did they only leave one time only there, or do you think they had several days where they picked up people? Do you remember? I don't remember either. But there were several, three busloads. Yeah. But we were young yet, and we thought it was a big adventure.

RP: You were twenty-one years old.

DI: Uh-huh. I felt sorry for the older people, but we were still young yet, so it was kind of an adventure. We'd never been really that much out of the area. The coast, we used to go fishing up there.

RP: Oh, fishing up in...

DI: I think he used to go. [Referring to husband] He used to be an outdoor man, fishing, and he used to hunt, he's a gun collector. So he did a lot of things.